Young gun Kondo fires Buffaloes past Lions

by Jim Allen (Mar 24, 2008)

Kazuki Kondo's second PL win was a long time coming, but the
25-year-old hopes it may be the start of something big. Kondo became
the second young Buffaloes starter to stick it to the Lions in four
days as Orix clipped Saitama Seibu 2-1 at Seibu Dome on Sunday.

"This win means more than the first," said Kondo, who won his debut
start on Sept. 20, 2004. "That was at the end of the season, but this
one is at the beginning, where what happens after matters."

Kondo allowed a run on four hits in six innings. Complementing a
live fastball with a solid changeup and breaking ball, Kondo struck out
four and walked one, although he did allow the Lions the first run.

In the second inning, G.G. Sato teed off on 1-2 fastball, giving him a home run in each of the three games here against Orix.

"It was his first at-bat and I wanted to go after him, but he was
just better than I was," Kondo said. "I wanted to be bold, but I was
probably overaggressive in that count."

His Orix batterymate, Takeshi Hidaka, tied it with a homer in the
fifth, helping to spoil Matt Kinney's Japan debut. The right-hander
allowed two runs in six innings as his fastball-changeup combination
put all the Buffaloes batters in a funk, except Hidaka.

After Hidaka's homer, Kinney received a lesson in a fundamental
dynamic of Japanese baseball: To stay in the strike zone is to invite
marathon at-bats. Buffaloes leadoff man Tomotaka Sakaguchi fouled off
six straight 3-2 pitches before driving the juiciest of a dozen
deliveries against the fence in right center for a one-out triple.

Arihito Muramatsu then smashed a single through the drawn-in infield
that put the Buffaloes on top. Sakaguchi, however, opened the door for
Seibu in the bottom of the sixth. He dropped a liner in center to put
the Lions leadoff man on. With one out and the runner at second, Kondo
whiffed a throw that advanced the runner to third on a wild pitch, but
he never scored.

"It was me who gave up the lead, and the guys had my back all that
time," Kondo said. "It was an error, but I couldn't change that, so I
just wanted to hold up my end."

With the club hurting for hurlers, Buffaloes boss Terry Collins
brought in Kondo's relief after just 84 pitches, giving Orix the option
of starting the youngster on short rest. The bullpen did the job,
although it was touch and go in the eighth.

Right-hander Kazuya Motoyanagi and lefty Tsuyoshi Kikuchihara each
allowed a hit in a scoreless inning, although Kikuchihara's was a nail
biter that required him to strikeout cleanup man Craig Brazell to
escape with two on and two outs.

Closer Daisuke Kato, however, overpowered the Lions in a 1-2-3 ninth
for his second save. He also saved the Buffs' 2-1 Opening Day win for
25-year-old Chihiro Kaneko.

Having watched that game, and a strong start by 25-year-old Shinya
Nakayama on Saturday, Kondo was not going to be the weak link.

Oba, who was named on six teams' first-round ballots in the second
phase of the 2007 draft, allowed eight hits but no walks, while
striking out six.

After coming from behind in each of their first two games, the Hawks
broke a scoreless tie in the eighth. A single, a double and an error,
by center fielder Teppei Tsuchiya, opened the scoring and Hitoshi
Tamura broke it open with a two-run homer.

Marines 4, Fighters 1: Shunsuke Watanabe allowed a run in eight
innings for the win in Sapporo as Chiba Lotte beat Hokkaido Nippon Ham,
with 39-year-old lefty Koji Takagi saving a game for the first time
since 1990, when he pitched for the Orix Braves.